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Facehugger
A Facehugger is the second stage in the Alien's life cycle. It has eight long finger-like legs which allow it to crawl rapidly, and a long tail adapted for making great leaps. These particular appendages give it an appearance somewhat comparable to chelicerate arthropods such as arachnids and horseshoe crabs. The facehugger is a parasitoid; its only purpose is to make contact with the host's mouth for the implantation process, by gripping its legs around the victim's head and wrapping its tail around the host's neck. Upon making contact, the facehugger tightens its tail around the host's neck in order to render it unconscious through oxygen deprivation although its possible it renders its host unconscious via another method such as a use of a toxin. The facehugger then inserts a proboscis down the host's throat, supplying it with oxygen while simultaneously implanting an embryo. Attempts to remove facehuggers generally prove fatal, as the parasitoid will respond by tightening its grip, and the facehugger's acidic blood prevents it from being safely cut away. Once the Alien embryo is safely implanted, the facehugger detaches and dies. Facehugger Design Giger's original design for the facehugger was a much larger creature with eyes and a spring-loaded tail. Later, in response to comments from the filmmakers, Giger reduced the creature's size substantially. At first Giger assumed that the facehugger would wrap around the outside of the astronaut's helmet, but Scott decided that it would have far more impact if the facehugger were revealed once the helmet was removed. Scott and Giger realised that the facehugger could burn through the helmet's faceplate with its acid blood; subsequent redesigns of the space helmet included a far larger faceplate to allow for this.Dan O'Bannon initially conceived the facehugger as somewhat resembling an octopus, possessing tentacles. However, when he received H. R. Giger's designs, which substituted tentacles with fingerlike digits, he thought Giger's design concept superior. Since no one was available at the time, O'Bannon decided to design the facehugger prop himself. The technical elements of the musculature and bone were added by Ron Cobb. Giger's initial design for the smaller facehugger had the fingers facing forward, but O'Bannon's redesign shifted the legs to the side. When the foam rubber sculpture of the facehugger was produced, O'Bannon asked that it should remain unpainted, believing the rubber, which resembled human skin, was more plausible. In Alien 3, another addition, a "super-facehugger" that would carry the embryo of the queen Alien, was planned but ultimately dropped. The super-facehugger is briefly glimpsed in the Assembly cut of Alien 3, but not identified as such. Capturing a Host While a facehugger's tail could be used to strangle a host unconscious it is unlikely it does it, host are rendered unconscious within seconds, roughly around 7 seconds and the only choke that can knock someone out in seconds is a bloodchoke which stops the blood from entering the brain thus knocking a person out and requires a very precise chokehold. The other chokehold cuts off oxygen to the brain but usually takes longer to knock someone out. If the facehugger used its tail to render its host unconscious then Ripley would have being successfully facehugged and unconscious well before hicks and others arrived in time as the tail was around her throat for more than 10 seconds and she was still concious. It has been shown in films and some comics (canon status questionable as usual) that people who get facehugged are unconcious almost instantly, An example would be the two homeless people. one was rendered unconcious in around seven or eight seconds and the other was unconcious within two seconds once it attached to him, these examples are when the parasite has fully attached. Also a Predator would easily remove a facehugger from it's face due to their black neck guards and even if it were ineffective, their extreme strength means they would easily be able pull them off. It should be said that most victims that get attacked usually try and get the parasite off their face rather than trying to uncoil the tail around their neck though some have been seen trying such as Roussea indicating that the facehugger is either not choking them or at least severely as anyone getting choked would panic and immediatly try to pull at the tail but as just said, most hosts try and get the parasite off their faces. it is possible that the facehugger could and perhaps does use its tail to render someone unconcious but in terms of timing and the lack of brain damage in the host means its unlikely. Its more likely that the facehugger sedates its host through some sort of toxin or anaesthetic. The reason why this is more likely is because of how fast the host is rendered unconscious and why the host would die if the parasite is prematurely removed, the sedation may render a hosts breathing function useless and the host is then completely dependent on it and so removing it would would cause the host to die from asphyxiation and not "murdered" by the parasite as its only concern is propagation of the species and nothing else. Facehugger's Grip Strength A facehugger may appear to be nothing more than a big spider to some but their strength is surprisingly strong, those who are facehugged never manage to be able pull it off them before being sedated, even Predators with their strength are apparently unable to remove the parasite from their faces in time. A facehugger's legs may 'lock" once around a host's head, which would mean simply pulling it off will be nearly imposssible and while a victim could try lifting it off like a helmet, its powerful tail prevents that. Its unknown if a human or Predator could eventually remove a facehugger because said species are usually incapacitated within 7 seconds. Ripley 8 managed to do so but the circumstances were different as she was stronger than a human and was submerged in water. The Facehugger would or could not sedate her while underwater presumably because either the water itself stopped its attempts or because once implantation was complete, Ripley would drown and the chestburster would die and chestbursters can only survive a host's death if it is ready to "burst" as before then they are still connected to the host. A facehugger's tail is also very powerful and strong, being described as very muscular, facehuggers uses their tails to spring out from an egg and also to help them attach to a host by wrapping thier tail around a limb and then pulling themselves closer to the host. Avoidance and Resistence so far the only known way to avoid being facehugged is to simply run from it or kill it but there is no possible way to pull it off after it has fully attached due to its surprsing strength in it's grip and tail, not only that but hosts are generally unconscious in eight seconds. Should a facehugger leap on to someone and they manage to grab on to it in time, they will find the odds still not in their favour as it is shown it requires two people to get the parasite off, especially if the tail is wrapped around the host-to-be's throat. A Homeless man managed to catch a facehugger before it could attach to him but was eventually facehugged, it could be debated that it was because he got distracted by an alien warrior. Super-Facehugger The Super Facehugger which is sometimes called a royal or queen facehugger is supposedly be able to implant embryos in multiple hosts, it is dark incolour and has webbed digits. Victims FILMS Kane. Barbara. Russel. Colonists. Apone.(presumably Dietrich.(presumably) Ripley. Spike. Pervis and multiple people. Adele Rousseu. Thomas. Multiple people in the sacrificial chamber. Sacrificial Maiden. Miller. Verheidan. Connor. Buddy. Sam. Harry. Homeless man 2.